Four years ago, I stayed away from wearing any type of shades because I always felt uncomfortable sporting them. The experience was comparable like your first arrival at a gym, where your mind is more on imagining how many people are looking at you when in reality nobody really cares.

The insecurities stemmed from thinking I didn’t have the “face” to wear any type of shade but the problem was that I wasn’t wearing ones the right ones to compliment my face type in the first place. Eventually my wife convinced me to get over the nervousness in wearing an accessory that others confidently display, especially since I would need some form of eye protection for our Mediterranean honeymoon cruise at the time.

I’ve always been an admirer of the classic aviator shape but I’ve never believed in paying the ridiculous amount that some name-brand aficionados do. I went with these from Banana Republic and the 50% off employee discount made the purchase even sweeter.